September means apple picking, and after going to Hartland Orchard last year and the year before, we decided to try a new apple orchard and found Crooked Run Orchard in Purcellville!
Crooked Run Orchard
apples
Hartland Orchard
Since we had such a great time picking apples last year, we wanted to go again this year and decided that Sunday was the day! Because we went a little earlier in the season this time (mid-September as opposed to early October), there was more of a variety for us to pick — Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Fuji, and Mutsu.
‘Tis the Season… for Apple Picking!
It’s October, and the air is getting crisp, the leaves on the trees are starting to change all sorts of beautiful colors, Starbucks has started serving their annual pumpkin spice lattés… it’s officially fall! Autumn is also the perfect time to go apple picking, and we decided to take Mio to go apple picking for her first time last Saturday. Actually, the best time to pick apples if you want a great variety to choose from is September, but there are still plenty of winter apples waiting to be picked in October. It was a beautiful day — hot, even (with highs in the mid-80s) — and it was the perfect weather for an outdoor outing! We chose to go to Hartland Orchards in Markham, Virginia, which is about a 50 minute drive west. The drive over was nice, as a lot of the trees along the highway are just starting to turn golden, with some hints of red.
Hartland Orchards also had pumpkin patches for picking pumpkins! Mio exclaimed, “pumpkin!” when she saw the fields of orange gourds.
Here’s a quick video montage that I put together of some moments from our apple picking outing, using the RoadMovies app on my phone!
At the end of the trip, we picked a whole bunch of apples and it only cost us a $1 at checkout! (We did spend a little more on some delicious apple cider they were selling there, though. I may not be a big fan of pumpkin spice lattés, but I could never turn down a glass of apple cider!) We have plenty of apples to munch on, and I smell some apple pie, turnovers, and tarts in the not-too-distant future… 🙂
Frying Pan Farm Park
Last Saturday, we took Mio to Frying Pan Farm Park in Herndon, a historical farm where you can see all kinds of animals and experience farm life from the 1920’s. We met up with our friends Stephanie and Chwan and their adorable son Danny, who is three months older than Mio! We’ve been wanting to have a playdate for the two cuties to meet, and this was the perfect opportunity, since both of them love animals!
One really cool attraction they had there was cow milking! Even I’ve never seen a cow getting milked, so it was very cool to see and experience! I was trying to explain to Mio that they were squeezing the “minmi” (Japanese baby word for “milk”) that she drinks out of the cow, and she started pulling on her ears. Dan and I were confused for a few seconds, but then it dawned on me that she was confusing the word with “mimi” (which is Japanese for “ear”). I couldn’t help but laugh!
Because Frying Pan Farm Park is a historical site and they showcase farm life from the 1920’s, they have a lot of old-fashioned traditional machines that have survived for almost a century! This machine de-kernels corn, and it’s the original machine from the 1920’s! I couldn’t believe how well it still worked, and so efficiently too (it uses very little gas to operate)!
Another neat machine they had was one in which you’d throw apples in, and the apples would get transported up into a mechanism that would turn the apples into apple cider! They handed out apples for kids and their parents to throw into the machine, so that we could watch them go up.
After seeing a lot of the farm life of the park, we walked over to the carousel and playground area.
We ended the outing with a delicious Burmese lunch at Myanmar restaurant in Falls Church! It was a fun day spent with great friends. 🙂